Eternally Vernal, Chapter 5: Basal Basin
* * * Eternally Vernal, Chapter 5: Basal Basin. * * * Gates stood in his kitchen and examined the devastation that surrounded him. What few items had populated the refrigerator were now gone. The dogs' feeder, activated until empty. With a...
Eternally Vernal, Chapter 3: Tunnel Visions
* * * Eternally Vernal, Chapter 3: Tunnel Visions. * * * A vertical blind slat that refused to synchronize with its mates let a sliver of the sun's first light pour through Gates' bedroom window and pool as warmth on Warden's tuft. Soon...
Can't Escape, Part VI: Highly Curious
* * * Can't Escape, Chapter 6: Highly Curious. * * * "Are you kidding? She's practically an addict; takes one with every meal. Fiona spent all weekend at that Battle Arcade marathon game the Frontier set up at Coumarin Gym trying to...
Eternally Vernal, Chapter 4: Rise Of The Bran Muffins
* * * Eternally Vernal, Chapter 4: Rise Of The Bran Muffins. * * * At first they were seen as a generous and unexpected treat. Now, on day eight of a second big favor and day four of fresh-baked bran muffins, they were dreaded as anathema....
Can't Escape, Part IV: Good Perseverance
* * * Can't Escape, Chapter 4: Good Perseverance. * * * Sparks crawled across the sink water's surface. At the instant they subsided, a poised ninetales leapt from the floor and snapped at an ampharos's face in an attempt to remind the...
Can't Escape, Part V: Hates to Lose
* * * Can't Escape, Chapter 5: Hates To Lose. * * * "Wait, wait! Are you sure this isn't going to scramble my brains?" Fiona noticed the graffiti that was written all over a plain-looking machine embedded inside an alcove wall's...
Can't Escape, Part IX: Thoroughly Cunning
* * * Can't Escape, Chapter 9: Thoroughly Cunning. * * * Opening before Mortimer and Shade, the cabin's front door groaned as if to announce their return. Zap did not need a warning. Having perfected his sense of timing, Zap ensured...
Trick Candle
* * * Trick Candle. * * * “…as hard as you can." * * * Muffled by twin-layered corrugation, I heard only the duller vibrations of distant voices. No matter, were they clear and meant for my ears, I could not—yet—comprehend them....
Eternally Vernal, Chapter 6: Rock, Paper, Scissors; Noughts and Crosses; Marbles; and Tag
* * * Eternally Vernal, Chapter 6a: Rock. * * * Gates struggled to keep up with Seth. Were it not his familiar style, the dog could have been suspected of plotting to ditch his master as he hotfooted from shallow spot to shallow spot amid...
Eternally Vernal, Chapter 7: A Fresh Coat Of Pain
* * * Eternally Vernal, Chapter 7: A Fresh Coat Of Pain. * * * Fardeau bared his teeth and snarled. His breath today was far less objectionable than it was when he was found half-incapacitated with a bellyache born of broken shards of what...
Can't Escape, Part VIII: Often Lost in Thought
* * * Can't Escape, Chapter 8: Often Lost In Thought. * * * Vincent cast Vera's name into the skies and received no reply. He shrugged and turned to face his team. "Maybe she knows we don't have six and is waiting at the motel with...
Eternally Vernal, Epilogue: Snowflakes On Flowers, Their Souls Preserved Beneath Glass, Springtime Forever
* * * Eternally Vernal, Epilogue: Snowflakes on flowers, their souls preserved beneath glass, springtime forever. * * * Fardeau, coming to realize the concept of context, felt frustrated. In the woods, a battle to the death to protect his...